The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1887-12-17
TIL: GERMS OF DISEASE
LURKING IN THE CUTTERS AND
RUTS OF CITY STREETS.

Nlin>m Engcnlerel by the SUMS RAYS,
Poison Ercathcd by the Children of
the Poor-What IL Physician Says of
Dirty Streets.
"lf one member is sick" writes st. Paul,
"the whole body sutTereth." Aristocratic and
h'gh toned quarters cannot insure themselves
from the fatal consequences attending an en-
vironment of filth and sqlalor, of otfal and
garbage. Luxuriously appointed parlors,
plate glass windows and long prayers will not
bring an immunity to typhoid pneumonia,
diphtheria, cercbro-spinal meningitis, typhus
fever, Asiatic cholera or the Russian plague.
hen recking cesspools surround one on
every side it is a vain thing for even the
risi lily righteous to cxclainl, 'Soul, take
thine easc.' Ten righteous men might have
saved Sodom from the fire and birthstone
Visitation, but two clean avenues and few
we'll swept streets will not secure n like inn
nluniiy from tile miasm engen,erel by the
suns rays from the all pcrvadng filth. The
germs of disease lurl, in every gutter, hide in
every street hidden. Even when the tons of
garbage is removed the ruts and joints of the
pavement will be saturated with putrescent
organic mirc, which will yield constant
supply of noXious masma
In hot and dry weather these nauseating
deposits pass into the atmosphere in the form
of deadly vapors and letllal organisms, which
not only poison our lungs but sow the seeds
OF disease and death. Any one who will care
fully observe the ground when She pavement
Is removed for any purpose will perceive
black layer of earth saturated with sulphur
cited hydrogen, which bears eloquent itness
to the infection of the sub-soil by the soakage
of these regularly recurring winter contami-
nations.
NAroRS FROM THE CUTTERS.
Napors, still more noXious of course, than
those from the roai;bcl, rise from the gut
ters, TIL" subsoil of whieh is imprcgnated
with the most deadly organic poison. And
over these CUTTERS thousands of the children
of the poor play during the summer and i'll
hale the !rl;.sn into their tender lungs The
consequences are recorded in every wears
mortality report. Eighty per cent. of tho
infant population of New York city live in
tenement houses. and according to the report
of the state hoard of charities, one-half of
them do not survive their second birthday
An elderly medical gentleman, in conver-
snti"n with the writer recently, remarked:
"Diphthcrla, typhoid pneumonia and typhus
fever are diseases Of comparatively recent
development in New York They are the
direct result of dirty streets and Astounding
filth. When began practice in New York,
after attending the hospitals in Paris and
London, ten years passcl-aye, moro than
ten ye;'ls-wiihout my seeing case of fever.
Except the imported ship fever there were no
fever eases of any kind in this then healthy
city. One day DIR. Griscom astonishcd tho
profession by inviting them to call and see
four cases of this character in the New York
hospital, on Broadway, then under his super
ntcndcnce. Today these are the principal
diseases and the most fatal diseases the prac-
ticing phys ciun has to combat "-B. II. Valen-
tine in Herald of Health